According to the official records of the Lausanne Peace Conference, while, at the beginning of 1920, the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace owned % 84 of the land in Western Thrace, the proportion has fallen below % 25 today. Behind this change in the ownership of land was the lending of extra-beneficial credits to the citizens of Greek origin to encourage the purchase of real estate from the members of Turkish minority, expropriation, the unification of land (anadasmos), non-recognition of Ottoman land titles and possessions, confiscation of the Turkish Minority's lands by claiming that they were arbitrarily occupied, and the settlement of Greeks in the region brought from the Republics of former Soviet Union in the last years.
Expropriations have played the greatest role in the loss of land ownership. These expropriations were either made by targeting solely Turkish land or % 80-90 of Turkish and only % 10-20 of Greek lands. In this context, in 1978, with the aim of building an industrial site, 4.000 hectares of fertile land most of which was owned by the minority; in 1980, to be used as university zone 3.200 hectares of land belonging to the minority in north-western part of Komotini; and in 1980, 4.300 hectares of land, with the aim of building barracks for the Greek military, were expropriated. Today, while the University of Thessaloniki, the biggest university in Greece rests on 640 hectares, it is very interesting that Dimokritos University in Komotini is designed to be built on 3200 hectares of land which is almost six times greater than the land of University of Thessaloniki. This makes the campus of the Dimokritos University, among those of all world universities, the largest with regard to land size.
With the method of unification and re-distribution of land (anadasmos) which became divided in time and economically less valuable, the land-owners are given new unique pieces of land with equal fertility and quantity. However, as the quality of lands are shown less than their original level, less valuable land is given to the ethnic Turks instead of the fertile land taken from them. Therefore, the ethnic Turks are deprived of land also in terms of quality.
Another practice is either the transfer of pastures of villages to the Treasury or their distribution to the Greek farmers. Although the Ottoman titles are valid in Greece, they are usually not recognized when the Minority is concerned. In 1974, 1800 hectares of land belonging to the Turks in the sub-district of Inhanly was tried to be taken away by a decision of Council of Greek State Properties which claimed that it was the property of the Treasury, although it had an Ottoman title since 1872.
In accordance with the state policy of leaving the minority without land, which is summarized by examples above, the valley between Barakly and Demircili villages, 11 km north of the city, totally populated by the Turks, was chosen as the refuse dump of Komotini by the Municipal Assembly on April 18, 1996. With this decision, Greece has acted also against the principles and legislation of the European Union. According to Rule No: 91/156 of the EU, although the member states are obliged to notify their suggestions for alternative solutions about refuse, Greece made no notification, knowing it was acting illegally.
While on the one hand, the Turkish minority is being deprived of its land, on the other hand, acquisition of new land was prevented for a long time by Law No: 1366 dated 1938 which declared more than half of Greece's territory, including whole of the Western Thrace, as a border zone and introduced an obligation to get permission from the commission established in the concerned border provinces for the Greek citizens who want to buy and sell immovable in this zone.
On the basis of this law, no permission was granted to the selling of property between the members of the Turkish minority or from people of Greek origin to the minority members for many years.
The European Commission, judging that this law ran counter to EU legislation on free movement of persons, services and capital and the acquisition of property, sued the case before Court of Luxembourg. The Court decided that the Greek legislation about this subject is contrary to Article 52 of the Treaty of Rome.
Following this decision of the Court, a new Law No: 1892, which determined the principles for the buying and selling on the border zones, came into force on July 31, 1990 and the Law No: 1366 was abrogated.
In the new law, instead of "border zone" it was preferred to use the term, "the zones in which permission is required for acquisition of real estate". A provision allowing the citizens of EU member states to buy immovables in these zones, like the Greek citizens and third country citizens of Greek origin, was added. On the other hand, the requirement for permission which was envisaged in the Law No: 1366 was also retained in the new law.
For the last years, selective permission for the selling of real estate between the minority members or from a person of Greek origin to members of the Turkish minority has been granted. But the number of such cases are few and getting a reply from the authorities takes months.